Major, major shout out to Howard University’s Zon D’Amour as well as all of Endustry Power Players for inviting me to kick it with them and chop it up with whoever shows up to this event, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, about whatever’s on their minds. I invite and encourage anybody who rocks with me to come through. It’s at 7pm, and the address is below:

Howard University
Armour J. Blackburn University Center
2397 Sixth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20059
202-806-5983

Bingo. Any problems, just call that number. I’m nervous because I’ve never spoke at a panel before! I just want to make sure anything I say helps whoever is in the room get closer to whatever they’re striving for.

I’m excited to share the room with the brilliant minds behind Concrete Loop, Ready Set DC, The Fab Empire, and more. Some of these folks I know, some of them I’ve been following and admiring from afar from a while, and some I’m not hip to. Regardless, I think it’s just crazy that I’ll be on this panel.

Shout out to all the supporters who still rock with a slowly moving movement. The summer has some cool stuff in store! Promise! Shout out to Marcel and Quinn. And shout out to anybody who believed in the DC to BC movement from jump.

P.S.: These guys are so smooth. I didn’t even give them my logo or anything. They just snatched it from somewhere. Respect.

Thank you, WKYS! I appreciate it. Check the article here, and browse the site out too; they just started going IN on their content. Hopefully, it’ll be a whole new market for them since terrestrial radio is evolving.

Thanks again guys!!!

My man Ben and I have known each other since he came to Sidwell in 3rd grade, and years later, we’re still cool. So cool, in fact, that he hollered at me to join him in a conversation about consent.

Yeah, you heard me. CONSENT. He’s started an AWESOME organization called The Consensual Project that teams up with schools and universities to talk to the young folks about consent in hookups, relationships, and I guess anywhere its present in their daily lives. It’s a pretty interesting concept, and once he told me about it, I was excited for him. Now, when he asked me to get on camera and talk about consent in hookup culture, I was a little reluctant. I didn’t wanna put myself out there like that, because…well, if you know about the infamous Roster post…no, but really, I just wasn’t really 100% ready to talk about it. After some persuading, we ended up talking on camera for about 45 minutes. Ben whittled all of that down to  this five minute clip you’re about to see. Check it out, and then scroll down to see what I have to say about things you didn’t catch due to editing.

Okay, so that was me being pretty damn honest about hookups and such. Now, a few things you didn’t see that I spoke about.

One of the big things we talked about was how black culture and white culture differ. For instance, partying and communication between the two, generally speaking, is lightyears apart in terms of similarity. I frequent all sorts of parties, but let’s talk about the black ones real quick. Since I’m from DC, I know how the party culture/climate is. When you hit a party around these parts, girls get grabbed up  and that’s just kinda how it goes, they know what it is. It’s not a real grab, it’s that light grab. You know, the joint that’s like our mating call. The girls know what’s up, the guys know what’s up. It’s not aggressive, it’s just what we do. Our culture kinda embraced that and that’s just how it’s done these days. Can we change it? Probably. But I proposed to Ben in our convo that maybe a combination of body language and consent is how change can be achieved.

I also quickly touched on how sometimes, the element of surprise is cooler than consent. Let’s just be real for a second: you don’t wanna know it all. Asking to kiss somebody is cool, but that rush of getting kissed or kissing somebody is almost unmatched! Ben and I have differing views here, but I think that in the end, like I said before, body language and consent combined can communicate pretty much everything that needs to be communicated in these scenarios.

I had a great time working with Ben, and I’m excited to see what The Consensual Project has up its sleeves in the near future. Schools, BOOK THE MAN! He’s literally getting gigs all over the country, and I’m proud of his progress. Check the site out here, it’s probably one of the smoothest, most easily navigable sites online. Whoever designed that should win some kind of award.

Shout out to The Madbury Club (and Phil Annand, the mastermind behind that whole movement, as well as one of the brightest young minds I know) for recruiting me to write for “The Club” this week. This marvelous Columbus Day (hey, I’m just talking about the day outside and stuff, dude. I don’t particularly care much for the actual holiday. No work, though. So I can’t complain too much.), they dropped their coverage of NY’s tour date for The Smoker’s Club, and those photos, by Vincent Picone, are crispier than that Kia Shine song that dropped a few years back.

Check the write-up here, and explore the rest of the site for other incredible features, spreads, and writing. It’s next-level genius, really. I honestly think that when it’s all said and done, they’ll be one of those sites that people talk about like they talk about Complex, Hypebeast, and The Gee Pee. Ha. I had to throw myself in there. My bad!

Shout out to Ellington, too.

Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather” is considered one of American cinemas most acclaimed masterpieces. Hip Hop music has always held gangster movies close to the heart. Through out the culture you can hear the influences in different verses of song to the names of the artists themselves.

Many emcees have nicknamed themselves Al Pacino’s famed character, Michael. Hip Hop’s King Jay-Z took on this moniker on two different songs. On his first LP “Reasonable Doubt” he chanted “My portfolio reads: / leads to Don Corleone, n*gga please”. The track “Politics as Usual” speaks of the element of hustle, a main ingredient to the Corleone’s rise to the top. He revisited the name on the second Blueprint installment on “Guns & Roses” featuring rock icon Lenny Kravitz. Another legendary emcee by the name of Big L used Michael’s namesake on the track “Flamboyant”. The words from Lamont Colemon would ring out “Big L, Corleone A smooth kid that’ll run up in your baby mother / Big L, for real Corleone is too advanced for yall / Big L, I’m a pimped out nigga for real / Big L Corleone is too advanced for yall”. Raps super group of the late nineties The Firm introduced themselves on NaS‘ second LP with words from AZ. Once again you would hear the famous name. “Who pull the late, We play for high stakes at gun point / Catch’em and break undress’em tie’em With tape no escape / The Corleone Fettucini Capone Roam in your own zone / Get kidnapped and clapped in your dome We go it sewn….”

Some of rap’s most famous emcee’s album titles had great influence from the movie. Former Bad Boy Records artist Shyne named his second album “Godfather Buried Alive” when he made the transition to Def Jam. Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon The Chef named his second album “Immobilarity”. This was a play on the name of the international real estate holding company Michael seeked to buy the Vatican’s shares from in the third movie.

The late and great Notorious B.I.G. had dreams of creating an elite collective of emcees called “The Commision”. In Godfather III, the group of crime bosses that made up the Mafia Council was assassinated by Joey Zasa. This too would not come to fruition because of his untimely death of Christopher Wallace. The third movie would also have influence in songs such as “GOD Part III” by Queens rap group, Mobb Deep. Even the South caught the fever of The Godfather. Trillville‘s member named himself Don P, but also goes by Don Corleone. Needless to say, the movie has had a tremendous impact on hip-hop culture.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg. But after thumbing through hip-hop’s footnotes, a greater question stands: what exactly is it about the gangster flick that makes rappers want to constantly refer to it like faithful Christians do the Bible? Discussion is encouraged.

[Editor's Note: Huge shout out to Pardon Me Duke, because without PMD, this article wouldn't be here. ]